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Foote (Morris Cooper) papers
M2103
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Morris Cooper Foote papers
creator:
Foote, Morris Cooper, 1843-1905
Identifier/Call Number: M2103
Physical Description:
3 Linear Feet
(4 boxes, 2 map folders)
Date (inclusive): 1886-1913
Abstract: The papers of Morris Cooper Foote document his career in the United States Army during the Boxer Rebellion in Northern China
and the Spanish-American War in Cuba.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This collection was purchased by Stanford University, Special Collections in 2015.
[identification of item], Morris Cooper Foote papers (M2103). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford
University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Foote's personal papers are public domain and there are no restrictions on use. Other material in the collection may be subject
to copyright.
Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use.
Morris Cooper Foote was born September 16, 1843, at Madison Barracks, Sackett’s Harbor, New York, to Lyman and Mary M. (Cooper)
Foote. His great-grandfather was William Cooper, the founder of Cooperstown, New York, and his maternal great-grandfather
was Jacob Morris, who served as an officer in the Revolutionary War, whose father was Lewis Morris, a signer of the Declaration
of Independence. Foote was also the great-nephew of novelist James Fenimore Cooper. After his father died during the Mexican
War in 1846 his mother moved to Cooperstown with her children. Foote attended school here for a time, later going to Plattsburg
and to a Commercial College in Syracuse.
Foote enlisted in the New York Volunteer Infantry in 1861, beginning a forty year military career. He served throughout the
entire Civil War, and was present at the surrender of Lee at Appomattox. He was captured in April 1864 at Plymouth, North
Carolina and was held was a prisoner at Libby, Macon, Charleston and Columbia, escaping from the latter and taking refuge
on board the U. S. gunboat Nipsic. In December 1864, he was among the 600 officer prisoners of war placed under fire in an
effort to prevent the batteries on Morris Island from shelling the city of Charleston. He was the only officer hit, receiving
a slight flesh wound from a piece of shell. Foote published a memoir based on his Civil War experiences.
After the Civil War, Foote served with his regiment in California, Alaska, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, South Dakota, Colorado,
Wyoming and Nebraska. He commanded one of the two companies of the 9th U.S. Infantry that received the Territory of Alaska
from Russia in 1867, and was present when the Russian flag was hauled down at Sitka.
He was adjutant of the Black Hills Expedition under Col. Richard I. Dodge in 1875, and was in charge at the Brule Sioux Indian
Agency the next year. He served in the field against the Sioux in 1877 and in the Geronimo Campaign in 1886, witnessing Geronimo’s
surrender to General Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona.
At the beginning of the Spanish-American War, Foote went to Cuba with the 9th U.S. Infantry, commanded a battalion at San
Juan, and was at the surrender of the Spanish Army in the city of Santiago in July 1898. The following month Foote received
promotion to the rank of Major and was ordered to Boston for recruiting duty, being unable to rejoin his regiment at the time
due to malaria.
In June 1900 Foote went to the Philippine Islands but was soon on his way to northern China with his regiment. China’s Boxer
Rebellion was an anti-foreign peasant uprising that had begun to escalate in the northern coastal province of Shandong. Hundreds
of Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic missionaries and many more Christian Chinese were massacred. The movement also resisted
growing imperialist tendencies in the area by European, Russian and American powers.
On June 17, the Boxers (also known as Yihetuan, or “Militia United in Righteousness”) began a siege of the Legation Quarter
in Peking, where many foreigners and Christians were sequestered. The United States, along with Great Britain, Russia, Germany,
France, Italy and Japan conducted a military expedition for the relief of the legations, sending 5000 troops for the purpose.
The international relief expedition, known as the Eight-Nation Alliance, marched from Taku to Tientsin, and then the seventy
more miles to Peking, raising the siege on August 4th. Foote was also present at the Battle of Tientsin, where the 9th infantry
suffered a ten percent casualty rate. Negotiations following the defeat of the Boxers allowed for various foreign powers to
administrate in certain territories, and in October 1900 Foote was ordered to return to Tientsin in command of United States
forces. He also represented the United States in the Tientsin Provisional Government, known as the “Conseil du Governement
Provisiors de Tientsin.”
Foote returned with his regiment to the Philippines in May 1901 and served at Basey, Samar, for some months. Later, as Colonel
of the 28th U.S. Infantry, he served in Cavite Province, near Manila, and also on the Island of Mindanao.
After being appointed a Brigadier General on February 18, 1903, Foote retired the following day. He moved to Europe and resided
in Geneva, Switzerland for two years. At the Hotel d'Angleterre, after recovering from double pneumonia and double pleurisy,
he passed away of heart failure on December 6, 1905. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The papers of Morris Cooper Foote (1843-1905) document the latter part of his career in the United States Army, especially
his service in Cuba during the Spanish-American War and in China during and after the Boxer Rebellion. Foote’s papers consist
of over 300 items, including manuscripts, journals, diaries, correspondence, official reports and documents, photographs,
maps, newspapers, printed ephemera, and related material. Extensive notes and transcriptions were made prior to accession;
some copies of which are filed in the collection.
During the Spanish-American War, Foote commanded a battalion on San Juan Hill with Theodore Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” and
others. The collection includes Foote’s eyewitness account of the action. Foote was also stationed at various times in the
Philippines, and there are some photographs and correspondence from the Islands. The bulk of the archive contains manuscript,
photographic, cartographic, and ephemeral material documenting Foote’s service in Northern China following the Boxer Rebellion,
with his regiment, the 9th Infantry, during the China Relief Expedition at Tientsin (the nearest port city to Peking, presently
Tianjin), and Peking (presently Beijing).
Foote was commander of American forces at Tientsin, and was also the United States Representative of the Provisional Government
of that city. Correspondents during this time include Major General Adna R. Chaffee, Chief Secretary Charles Denby Jr., and
Adjutant General Henry Hiestand of the China Relief Expedition Headquarters in Peking, as well as communication from Allied
Supreme Commander Alfred von Waldersee. There is also a small amount of correspondence and other material about his family
and various financial investments.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
China -- History -- Boxer Rebellion, 1899-1901 -- Campaigns
Spanish-American War, 1898 -- Campaigns -- Cuba
Foote, Morris Cooper, 1843-1905
United States. Army. Infantry Regiment, 9th (1855-1957)